Of Fire and Fury (Book 1: Light-Born Series)

Chapter 21 - Stone

Stone pulled away from the heat he felt as her hand touched him, staring at her with those dark intense eyes for a long moment. Finally he shook his head and turned, leaving her standing before their teepee as he retreated quickly to the cover of the thick trees on the edge of Omarihom. His mind was reeling, his body trembling, unwelcome feelings flying freely through him. The familiar numbness was gone, shattered. As he walked away, he found he could still smell her: a faint, refreshing smell, like the ground after rain. He shook his head to clear his mind. He could not turn back. He could not feel something for a woman who did not want him.

Feeling like that led to feeling pain.

But as he walked away, the numbness did not return as he had hoped. Instead, a hunger began to grow that felt like a dull ache in his belly. A hunger that made him want to run back and embrace her and make all her hurt go away. Instead, he pressed on toward the nearest set of trees, clenching his fists and not daring to look back at her standing in front of their shared home. This was too much. The Great One had asked him for too much. He was losing control because of her, and it was going to tear him apart.

As he walked, long shadows began to form under the light of the nearly full moon. After he had weaved his way through teepees on the edge of the village and he was thoroughly surrounded by thick trunks and branches, he sat down with his back to a tree. He sat silently, breathing in the sounds of the earth and the trees. He focused on the chirps and chattering of animals, bedding down for the night, and listened to the distant whinnying of the horses on the far side of camp. Get yourself under control, he thought. But he could not shake Rabid’s face from his mind.

How foolish he had been, how stupid. 

How little he knew of himself and the world, thinking he could avoid the pain of his past and feel something new. He had thought, when those words had involuntarily left his lips to Kizi, that this was something that he wanted. He had briefly felt that loving Rabid could be salve to his wounded soul. Now, he realized that in feeling something for Rabid there came every other feeling that he had worked so hard to keep down. If he let those in, he feared he would never get himself back. 

He was strong. 

He was Stone. 

That was what he had to hold on to. He crossed his arms and leaned against a tree, hoping for rest he knew wouldn’t come.